Substance Addiction Treatment In California

Being a large state with diverse ethnicity, the State of California has given the regional governments the authority to manage treatment regimes for alcohol and drug addiction patients within their territories. In this regard, the state has invested heavily in increasing and maintaining the capacity of the regions to undertake the task.

According to the figures released by the ADP, over 79,000 and 63,000 patients with alcohol and drug addiction respectively were admitted to public health facilities in 1993 for treatment. Out of these figures, over 50% of the drug-related admissions were addictions through drug injection while 45% of those admitted were of alcohol addiction. The number of women admitted increased from 25% in 1992 to 35% in 1993. Noting that women required more attention and help, the state allocates huge funds towards addressing women alcohol and drug addiction treatment programs.

The state decided to put more emphasis on women as alcohol and drug substance addiction leads to cases of premature births, retarded development in born children, low birth weight and other health complication after birth. A program involving several state agencies have set up addiction treatment centers in Harbor, UCLA, Sacramento, San Diego, Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles and Shasta regions. These centers have so far catered for over 8,000 women and 18,000 children successfully. Most of the women who have received treatment at these centers are young women still in their prime who have either just finished high school or have been referred or ordered by courts to undergo addiction treatment.

Although these centers continue to offer addiction treatment to thousands of alcohol and drug addiction patients, they are not adequate as others remain on long waiting lists. The total number of addiction patients these centers can accommodate at any given time is around 42,500. This has forced these centers to restrict accommodation treatment to those who require residential body detoxification treatment.

The California Department of Corrections also runs its inmate treatment programs within their institutions. The treatments have proved effective and successful if not interrupted. For those addiction inmates on a treatment program who are paroled, the ADP comes in to continue providing treatment. Inmates who complete treatment within the prison are in most cases referred to community treatment centers upon being released for further care. Treatment programs within California prisons include Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Drug Education.

The Amity treatment centre in San Diego and California Institute for Women in Fonterra are prison institutions that run the R.J. Donovan and Forever Free treatment programs respectively. The Amity treatment centre has a capacity to accommodate 200 inmates while the Institute for Women Centre has a capacity for 120 inmates. Unlike the R.J. Donovan program at Amity, the Forever Free program is an intensive six-month program that includes treatment, aftercare and placement services in other treatment programs upon release. All these programs, though run differently by various agencies and organizations, are coordinated by the ADP that has been given the overall mandate in matters to do with alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use and addiction.